Commenting on purported
parallels between the KJV and the Book of Mormon, one critic wrote the
following:
Why do so
many stories seem like exaggerated borrowings from the Bible?
Examples
. . .Daughter of Jared danced before the king (Ether 8) like the daughter of
Herodias (Matthew 14) (decapitation followed in both cases).
Commenting on Ether 8 and Matt 14//Mark
6//Luke 3, while acknowledging some parallels between the two narratives, Nicholas J. Frederick
noted the following important differences:
. . . there are also
four important differences between the two accounts. The first is that in Ether
8 the daughter of Jared is the primary actor; it is she who puts the evil ideas
into her father’s head and dances before Akish. In Mark’s account Salome acts
at her mother’s behest and presumably does not know that her dance will result
in John’s death until her mother instructs her after the dance to ask for John’s
head (see 6:24). She is as much of a pawn in her mother’s game as Herod is.
Because of this, the daughter of Jared seems to occupy the position or role of
both Herodias and Salome, as if both figures were collapsed into one Jaredite
female. A second major difference is the audience of the dance: Salome dances
for her father and his friends, while the daughter of Jared dances for a
potential husband. The presence of Herod’s guests presumably ensures that
Salome’s request will not be dismissed, an action that would likely have caused
Herod to lose face. The daughter of Jared, in the same fashion, has exactly the
audience she requires. This leads to a third major difference, the nature of
the request. Herod is clearly uncomfortable offering up John’s head, but he has
little choice—his promise must be kept. Akish appears completely comfortable,
with the request to carry out the murderous plot, as are, one assumes, both
Jared and his daughter. Finally a fourth major difference is the nature of the
dance itself. The daughter of Jared’s dance is prefaced by Moroni’s statement
that Jared’s daughter was “exceedingly fair,” suggesting a likely sensual
element to her dance, one that is expected to appeal to Akish and that will
lead to his matrimonial request. While there is nothing in the text to suggest
a salaciousness to the dance itself, it does appear designed to highlight the
woman’s physical attractiveness. In contrast, Salome is described simply as a “damsel”
(Mark 6:22), and no mention is made of her physical appearance. Nor is there
any suggestion that her dance was in any way seductive or erotic, only that it “pleased
Herod” (v. 22). Again, to suggest without textual evidence that Salome’s dance
contained a lascivious element or that it was, in the words of one scholar, “hardly
more than a striptease” (Harry Eiss, The Mythology of dance [Newcastle upon
Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars, 2013], 35) is to surely go beyond the mark. (Nicholas
J. Frederick, “Whence the Daughter of Jared? Text and Context” in Daniel L. Belnap,
ed. Illuminating the Jaredite Records [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies
Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2020], 235-51, here,
pp. 239-40)
